Balancer for pistol barrels



April 12, 1955 WALE I 2,705,846

BALANCER FOR PISTOL BARRELS Filed Feb 14, 1949 l4 lb 32. 26 22 3oHERBERT E. WALE Gttornegs United States Patent BALANCER FOR PISTOLBARRELS Herbert E. Wale, Bremerton, Wash.

Application February 14, 1949, Serial No. 76,280 1 Claim. (Cl. 42 1 Mypresent invention relates to the general art of hand guns, such aspistols, revolvers and the like, and more particularly to barrels forsuch hand guns as are used in target shooting.

The expert pistol and revolver shooter has found by experience thatcertain fundamental characteristics should be present in hand guns thatare to be used for the more accurate firing, such as competition targetshooting. Most authorities now agree that of the hand holding and firinga pistol, the index finger should pull the trigger and the second fingershould actually support from a position in rear of the index finger ortrigger, the bulk of the Weight of the gun; while the remaining twofingers and the thumb grip the gun in an easy holding manner withouttenseness. There are other conditions that affect firing. It has beendemonstrated that a heavy barrel pistol will maintain its zero, or inother words, be able to deliver successive shots at the same holdingwith the minimum of inaccuracy. This need of the heavy barrel isparticularly important in the auto-loading, or socalled automatic or therepeater type pistol. Here the mechanism makes it possible to fire astring of shots at a high rate and, as a result, considerable heating ofthe barrel occurs. In a heavy barrel it has been found that the heatingoccasioned by the number of shots normally fired in a match is of littlemoment and any inaccuracies thus caused are normally much less than thenormal holding error. However, if a light weight barrel is used, this isnot true. There it has been found that heating of the barrel tends tochange the zero, so that the gun will not fire the last rounds of astring at the same holding of the first. This is most objectionable.Another factor that enters into accuracy of sighting is the distancebetween the front and the rear sight and most especially, how far thefront sight is from the shooters eye. First, there are opticalprinciples involved, due to the inability of the human eye, acting as alens, to accurately focus on a rear sight, at front sight and thetarget, all at different distances. Experience, however, hasdemonstrated that within reason, the further out from the shooters eyethe front sight can be placed, and the greater the distance between thetwo sights, the less error will be introduced through misalignment ofthe sights. This has been proved quite conclusively through the use ofthe longbarrelled free pistol.

Taking all these items into account, it will be observed that theproblem confronting a manufacturer or designer of target pistols isquite a serious one and it is to provide a practical solution of thisproblem that I have created my target pistol barrel.

My solution of this problem has been arrived at after long experienceand as the result of a great amount of experimental firing. My solutionof this problem consists in providing a heavy weight barrel, but havingthis heavy barrel relatively short. This can be done without sacrificeof accuracy as relatively short barrels have been found to provide allthe accuracy that a pistol shooter can take advantage of. I then providea tubular barrel extension which is light in weight and which carriesthe front sight out to the desired position. When the end result isachieved in this manner no mental hazard is created for the shooter, forin effect this pistol has all the appearance of a solid barrel the fulllength provided.

The principal object of my present invention, therefore, is to provide aspecial barrel for pistols used in target shooting, which produces thebalance desired and which also provides the optimum position for thefront sig t.

A further object of my invention is to provide a heavy weight barrel fora pistol, with all its inherent accuracy and ability to maintain itszeroing, without disturbing either the desired balance of the pistol orthe positioning of the front sight thereof.

A further object of my invention is to provide a pistol barrel havingthose desirable characteristics which have proven beneficial in targetshooting, yet which carries out, to the extreme end of the barrel, thenormal and customary shape or contour, so that no mental hazard iscreated to elfect the shooters score.

Further objects, advantages and capabilities will be apparent from thedescription and disclosure in the drawings, or may be comprehended orare inherent in the device.

Figure l is an elevation, partly in section, of an autoloading pistol,employing one form of my improved target barrel.

Figure 2 is an elevation, partly in section, showing the preferred formof my target barrel for pistols.

Referring more particularly to the disclosure in the drawings, thenumeral 10 designates an auto-loading pistol, representative of one ofthe type of guns to which my target barrel is particularly well adapted.My barrel is likewise adaptable to single shot pistols and to a lesserdegree to revolvers.

Referring to Figure 1, that portion of the gun extending to the leftfrom the line indicated by reference character 12 is the barrel properand is that portion of the pistol subject to change. The barrel itselfnormally extends rearwardly or to the right, as viewed in Figure 1,until it abuts substantially the slid-able breech block 14. Now it hasbeen found that if barrel 16 is going to provide the balance pointdesired at 18, which is the position normally at which the second fingerof the shooters hand comes to rest, then a heavy weight barrel mustterminate at a point substantially as indicated by reference character20. This arrangement produces a desirable barrel in that it hassufiicient length so that bore 22, particularly if the pistol is of 22caliber (and this is the caliber mostly used in this type of gun), isadequate for all normal functioning. However, if the front sight is usedin its normal position, as indicated by the dashed line at 24, thesighting base between this sight and the rear sight 26, is so short thatminor errors in alignment produce considerable inaccuracy at the targetand further, for optical reasons, it is desirable: that this distance begreater.

Under such conditions, I provide an outwardly extending tube as 28,which is carefully machined to provide accurate concentricity withbarrel 16 and particularly for bore 22, and then extend this tube out sothat the front sight 30 is at the desired or optimum position. In sodoing I have added but little weight to the gun and have achieved allthe desirable characteristics enumerated in the preamble of thisapplication.

In Figure 2 I have shown what is probably the preferred form of mybarrel, in that the tubular portion 32 is formed as an integral portionof barrel 34. This atrangement can never come loose because it is formedas part of the barrel and in no way affects the outside appearance ofthe gun. Both forms of my invention provide a convenient seat for anauxiliary guide plug which may be fitted into the end of the tubularportions and thus form a guide for the cleaning rod, thus permitting thecleaning of the weapon without disassembling the same and without anydanger of injuring the lands at the muzzle, through non-axialpositioning of the cleaning rod.

Principles underlying use of the invention A pistol employing myimproved barrel is normally used in the accepted manner, and, under suchconditions there are normally two groups of muscles used. These are thetrapezius and deltoids. In aiming with a hand gun, the trapezius, whichis the large muscle group filling the space between the neck and theshoulder, holds the shoulder in position, while the deltoid musclegroup, found in the outside of the upper arm and extending up over theshoulder, takes the strain of holding the gun in its extended position.Assisting the deltoid group, is a secondary muscle group on the top ofthe forearm and this secondary group keeps the handgun from tippingdownwardly.

It has been found that a heavy barrel produces a gun that is mostpronouncedly muzzle heavy and this places an unwanted serious strain onthe deltoid and especially on the secondary muscles of the forearm. Anoptimum condition is that in which a very slight strain is placed onthese muscles and that will be achieved in arms fitted with barrelssubstantially of the proportion shown in my drawings. Any excess weightat the end of the muzzle over that shown, causes undue tensioning ofthese muscles and will cause the front sight to make a very.

exaggerated trace when aiming at a target and will make it verydifficult for the average person to achieve good scores. However, with agun modified after the teachings of my present invention, I have foundthat the average white collar shooter, with undeveloped muscles, canshoot as well as those relatively few people Who live outdoors and to alarge extent do manual work.

The experience of a large number of expert pistol shooters has shownthat when a pistol is especially muzzle heavy, low shots occur withconsiderable regularity. An analysis shows that as the hammer or strikermoves forward to fire the primer, it accumulates kinetic energy which istransferred to the gun as the firing pin engages the primer and in thebrief period before the cartridge is fired, the gun is given a forwardpush. Now as the gun is gripped by the shooter, considerably below theaxis of the bore, the end result is to drive the muzzle downwardly.Trials indicate that with a gun balanced, according to the teachings ofmy invention, the shooters muscles normally overcome any such downwardmovement sufficiently to prevent scoring of low shots.

It is believed that it Will be clearly apparent from the abovedescription and the disclosure in the drawings that the inventioncomprehends a novel construction of a barrel for pistols and the like.

Having thus disclosed the invention, I claim:

In a target pistol of the conventional type including a barrel having arifled bore, a hand grip, a receiver, and a trigger guard, theimprovement, comprising: said barrel being of a heavy-weight,short-length type, a light weight, tube-like extension extending forwardfrom the outer end of said barrel and formed integral therewith andhaving a cylindrically shaped exterior surface of the same diameter asand coextensive with the exterior surface of said end of said barrel,said extension having substantial length in comparison to the length ofsaid barrel, the interior surface of said extension being cylindricaland of greater diameter than the diameter of said bore, said pistolbeing balanced approximately at the rear end of said trigger guard andsaid extension being of such light weight'as'to'permit such balancing,and a front sight secured on the outer end of said extension.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS157,008 Kerr Nov. 17, 1874 636,196 Burgess Oct. 31, 1899 855,439Adrianson June 4, 1907 1,017,003 Kenney Feb. 13, 1912 1,760,674Frantzius May 27, 1930 2,464,010 Vonella Mar. 8, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS353,197 Italy Oct. 7, 1937

